OSLO (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a legless
lizard, a toad and a dwarf woodpecker among 14 species believed
to be new to science in central Brazil, a wildlife conservation
group said on Tuesday.

A four-week expedition to the Cerrado region, a wooded
savannah under threat from the expansion of farming, found
eight apparently unknown types of fish, three reptiles, one
amphibian, a mammal and a bird, Conservation International
said.

"The lizard, of the Bachia genus, resembles a snake due to
its lack of legs and pointed snout, which help it move across
the predominantly sandy soil," U.S.-based Conservation
International, a non-profit group, said in a statement.

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Susan Bruce, a spokeswoman for Conservation International,
said the lizard was about 15-20 cm (6-8 inches) long. Other
legless lizards around the world include ones related to geckos
in Australia or slow worms in Europe.

The lizard was found during the expedition to the Serra
Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 716,000 hectare (1.77
million acre) protected area in the Cerrado.

Other suspected new species include a dwarf woodpecker and
horned toad. Conservation International seeks to preserve
biodiversity and argues that human societies can live in
harmony with nature.

"Protected areas such as the Ecological Station are home to
some of the last remaining healthy ecosystems in a region
increasingly threatened by urban growth and mechanized
agriculture," said expedition leader Cristiano Nogueira.

The Cerrado region, part of Brazil's central high plains
region that once covered an area half the size of Europe, is
being converted to crops and ranch land at twice the rate of
the nearby Amazon rainforest, Conservation International said.

The expedition also recorded threatened species such as the
three-banded armadillo, the marsh deer and hyacinth macaw among
more than 440 species documented in the expedition comprising
26 researchers.